Punching-machine.



J. H. RIGBY.

PUNGHING MACHINE. APPLICATION FILED 11110.21, 1912.

Patented Oct. 13, 1914.

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PUNGHING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED DB0. 21, 1912.

Patented Oct. 13, 1914. 4 SHEETS-SHEET z.

J. H. RIGBY.

PUNCHING MACHINE. Y APPLICATION FILED DBO. 21, 1912.

Patented Oct. 13, 1914.

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Patented, oet. 13, 1914.

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UNTTED sTATEs PATENT orrion.

JOHN H. RIGBY, 0F BEVERLY, MASSACHUSETTS, .ASSIGNOR TO UNITED SHOE MACHIN- ERY COMPANY, OF PATERSON, NEW JERSEY, .A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

'.PUNCHING-IVIACHINE.

T0 all whom t may concern: l

Be it known that I, JOHN H. RIGBY, a citizen of the United States, residing, at Beverly, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain Improvements in Punching-Machines, of which the following description, in connection with the `accompanying drawings, is ay specification, like reference characters on the drawings indicating like parts in the several iigures.

This invention relates to cutting and punching machines and is illustrated in connection with a machine of the type shown in United States patent to Knight, No. 783,403 for pinking or punching` or performing both operations upon the toe tip of'a shoe. In machines of this type relative movement is produced between the tool or tools and a cutting block to force the tool or tools through the material which is being operated upon. Commonly the cutting block is carried by a plunger which is reciprocated by means of connecting rod and crank pin or by means of an eccentric from the driving shaft. A certain amount of play in the bearings is present from the beginning or develops during the use of the machine so that the limit of movement of the plunger is determined to an 'extent by theresistance which is encounters, that is, by the thickness of the material which is being operated uponl or by the extent of the cutting edges of the tools. If, then, the plunger is adjusted so as to cause a piece of thick material to be punched properly and a thin piece is then fed to the machine, the plunger will move a little farther than before whereby the cutting block will contact forcibly with the punches and dull or break them. The same undesirable result is also liable to occur if the machine is arranged to pink and punch the material and thereafter the punches or the pinking cutter is removed and a single pinking or punching operation carried out'.

@ne of the features of the present inven- -tion consists of a plunger and a driving Specfication of Letters Patent.

Patented oet. 1a, 1914.

Application filed December 21, 1912. Serial No. 738,015.

.this movement to carry with it the edge of the .tip with which it is in contact thereby curling or'bending said edge and causing improper location of the line of punch holes.-

Again when a pinking cutter is being employed the piece of material which is removed from the margin of the tip'will, un-

less provision is made for preventing it,

drop down between the edge ,gage and the pinking cutter.

In order to obviate these undesirable results another feature of the invention consists of a support for the margin o f the material adjacent to the edge gage, said support being yieldable independently of the stripper plate. With this construction the margin ofthe tip next to the edge gage will lbe properly supported during the descent of said gage; and 'if a pinking cutter is being used the Waste piece of material willbe raised into a readily accessible position as soon as the plunger has retreated. In machines of this type a paper backing strip is provided to receive the punches after they have been forced through the tip; and this strip is fed forward intermittently between the punching operations in order to expose afresh area to the punches. Hitherto the free end of this strip has been allowed to fall upon the fioor so 2 connection with an illustrative machine and pointed out in the appended claims.

Referring now to the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a vertical section through a machine in which the present invention is embodied; Fig. 2 is a perspective of the machine, a portion of the shield over which the paper runs having been broken away; Fig. 3 is a perspective of the grating which forms the supporting base for the punch plate holder; Fig. 4 is a perspective of the punch plate and its holder; Fig. 5 is a view from the rear of the punch plate and holder shown in Fig. 4, a portion of the plunger and cutting block being also shown; Fig. 6 is a sectional detail of a portion of the intermittent grip device which feeds the strip of paper; Fig. 7 is an elevation of the intermittent grip device; and Fig. 8 is an elevation of a portion of the machine showing the device for re-winding the paper.

Rotatably mounted in bearings in the frame of the machine is a driving shaft 1 which may be operated from a pulley 3, and fastened to said shaft by a taper pin 5 is a sleeve 7 carrying two eceentrics 9 upon which are hung connecting rods 11. These rods are pivoted at their lower ends to a plunger 13 provided with inclined guides 15 upon which a cutting block 17 is held, said block being adjustable along said guides by means of a screw 19. A strip of paper 2 1 which is fed intermittently in the direction of the arrow extends from a. reel 23 about which it is coiled, over a shield 25, beneath the cutting block and between two feed rolls 27 and 29.

It is desirable that the reel 23 should not overrun when the intermittent forward pulls are exerted upon the strip of paper during the operation of the machine. A friction brake 31 having a circular portion which grips a hub 33 on the end of the shaft 23 has an extended arm beneath the end of which is a coiled spring 35, the construc tion and operation of this brake being similar to the corresponding one shown in the patent to Knight which has been referred to. The intermittent grip device for advancing the strip of paper is operated from a crank pin 39 carried by a collar which is fast to the driving shaft 1. Upon this pin is hung a connecting` rod 41 which has at its lower end a pawl carrier 43 pivoted at 45 to a rotatable shaft supported in bearings in the frame of the machine. Fast to this shaft is a ratchet wheel 47 and a gear 49. The ratchet is turned intermittently by a spring-pressed pawl 51 as the rod 41 is raised, and the gear meshes with a smaller lgear 53 fast to the shaft 55 of the lower feed roll 29. Gears 54 and 56 connect the shafts of the lower feed rolls. A shield 57 of usual form and held in adjusted angular position by a thumb nut 59 is provided for varying the effective throw of the pawl. The upper feed roll 27 is carried by a bell crank lever 59 and is pressed against the lower roll through the lever by a spring 61 which acts upon an adjustable stop G3, the stem of said stop being held in adjusted position by a set nut G5. The lbell crank lever is adjustably fastened to a rock-shaft 67by a set screw (39; and adjustably fastened to the outer end of the shaft is a hand lever 71 which may be locked in its lower position when desired by a catch 73. It is thus possible to raise the feed roll 2T and to hold it in raised position when a new strip of paper is being put in place.

Referring now more particularly to Figs. 4 and 5, the two-part punch plate 75 is supported on a punch plate holder 77 having ears 79 by which it may be seized to place it in or remove it from the machine, said plate being held in place upon said holder by dowel pins, not shown. rlhe hollow punches 83 are driven into suitable sockets in the punch plate which register with bores 85 (see Fig. 1) in the holder so that the pieces of material cut out by the punches may pass through them and drop into a receptacle 87 in the base of the machine. A stripper plaie S9 is normally held in raised position by springs 91 (see F ig. l) and is Iguided in its vertical movement by the pins about which the springs are coiled as well as guide pins S1, all of said pins being fast to said stripper plate and cxtending into said punch plate. Heads ou certain of said pins limit the upward movement of said stripper plate..

An edge `gage 93 is adjustably fastened to a yielding support 95 by a screw 97 which passes through a slot in said gage and is threaded into such support, said support being` guided by pins 9?.) the central one of which is encircled. by a coiled spring 101. A scale marked upon the support is arranged to coperate with a line marked on the gage so as to facilitate the adjustment of said gage. The pinking cutter 103 is provided with a suitable base 105 which is fastened to a cutter holder 107 by screws,

not shown, said holder being itself held in adjusted position by set screws 109 and being guided in its adjustment by a tongue and groove connection with the punch plate holder 77 as shown in Fig. 5.

lVith the construction thus far described,

if a leather tip is placed in position upon the'stripper plate with its edge in contact with the edge gage 93. and the cutting block is brought down to pink and punch the tip,

it will be clear that before the pinking or l" punching operation is accomplished the edge gage. will he depressed. A difficulty here arises in that the gage as it moves downwardly tends to carry with it the edge of the tip and thereby7 to bend said edge 130 downwardly so that the cut-produced by the pinking cutter and the row of holes produced by the punches are liable to be located improperly upon the tip. This bending or curling of the edge of the tip is liable to occur with all tips but particularly with tips in which the edge has been folded. In order to prevent this bending or curling of the margin ofthe tip a support is. provlded for said margin" during the descent of the gage 93. In the illustrative machine this support' takes the form of three separate members 111 which are identicaly in sha'peI and carried by pins 113, being adjustably is gripped between the cutting block and`l the stripper plate. Moreover, if, as in the illustrative machine, a pinking cutter is l beingused the piece of waste material'removed by said cutter will be raised by the 'yielding supports as soon as the plunger has retreated, thereby preventing accumulation of similar pieces of waste material between the edge gage and the pinking cutter. Machines of this type are .used upon tips of different thickness, and the pinking and punching operations are sometimes carried out separately and sometimes together, it being necessary merely to remove either the cutter' or the punch plate in ca se a single operation is desired. The different condi-` tions under which the machine is operated have hitherto necessitated frequent ladjustment of the cutting block. Specifically there are several bearings between the driving shaft and the cutting block, and a certain amount of play either exists from the beginning or soon develops as the machine is used.

The effect of this play is as follows: If the cutting block is so adjusted that thick tips are properly punched without driving the punches through the paper backing and a thin tip is then fed to the machine there will be less resistance to the downward movement of the plunger and hence the The pins, which contact with similar stops 119 on the frame of the machine and limit the approach of said block to the punches. In the illustrative machine these stops are so Set that when they are in contact the distance`from the cutting block in .its lowermost position to the plane of the edges of the punches is .005 of an inch; andsince the paper backing is ".018 of an inch thick the punches will enter the paper .013 of an inch which will insure clean cut perforations through the tip.

rl `he small disks of material which are removedby the hollow punches and are forced into and` through said i punches become tightly packed together during the operation of the machine, kand these cylindrical accumulations are commonly known as pills It is essential that provision be made for the escape of these pills since otherwise the punches are liable to be broken. Ifv the same pattern or arrangement of punches were always used, this would be a simple matter, butthe curve of the line l.of punches as well as the location of the line with respect'to the edge ofthe punch plate varies with different plates.

The portion ofthe base of the machine which supports the punch plate holder 7 7 is accordingly made in the form of a grating, shown'in perspective in Fig. 3 and in section in Fig.l 1, the longer barsl being curved and the spaces between them being comparatively large so that with any given punch plate the pills will drop through the` grating. In order, however, to provide for a case in .which one or more cylindrical pills should be forced directly against the top of one ofthe grate bars, said 'grate bars are tapered at their upper portions; and the opening 85' in the punch plate holder 77 is made of a width considerably greater than the Adiameter of the pills which are formed.

The probability is very great that with a` t given pattern of punches no pills will strike square upon the narrow top of a grate bar, but if such a'condition does occur the lcylindrical pill will be crumpled in the bore 85 so that the direction of its downward thrust will be changed and the pill will be forced between the grate bars. This grating thus furnishes a rigid support for the punch plate holder so as to prevent any possibility of the springing of said holder and at the same time permits the escape of the pieces of waste material. For convenience in the above description the hollow punches have been described as cylindrical but it should be understood that the shape of the punches isimmaterial, those shown being square cornered.

The paper backing strip is often capable of being used several times. Hitherto, however, the strip has been allowed to fall to the floor so that it has been necessary to re- In Fig. 8 a re-winding device is shown. The shaft of the reel is held by a bracket 137 similar to the bracket .37, and a' friction brake 131 similar to the brake 31 embraces the hub 33 of the reel. The bracket is provided with yokes one of which is shown at 121 between the arms of which the shaft 123 of the re-winding reel is rotatably and slidably mounted, springs at each end, o-ne of which is shown at 125, tending to hold said 11e-winding reel down upon the main reel. The path of the paper is indicated by the arrows. One end of the strip of paper is attached tothe main reel, and the free end is passed over the guard 25, between the feed rolls 2 7 and 29, back around the rear portion of the roll of paper on the main reel, and thence upwardly to the re-winding reel to which it is attached. When, therefore, the strip of paper is pulled by the feed rolls in the direction indicated by the arrows and the roll of paper on the main reel is turned in a clockwise direction, 'the re-winding reel, which is held in contact therewith by the springs 125, will be turned in a counter-clockwise direction l and will thereby wind up the paper as fast as it is pulled from the main reel.

The operation of the machine has beenv sufficientlyv set forth in the description which has been given above in connection with the patent to Knight referred to and will not be further set forth.

Having thus described my invention what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is l. A machine of the class described having, in combination, a plunger and a driving shaft from which said plunger is driven, a rigid connecting rod between said shaftk and plunger, there being acertain amount of play between said shaft and plunger, a rigid support toward and from which said plunger moves, and vrigid stops for preventing overthrow of said plunger due to said play.

2. A machine of the class described having, in combination, a plurality of hollow punches, a cutting block for forcing the material to be punched against the punches, a backing striplocated between the cutting block and the material to be punched and adapted to receive the ends of the hollow punches, and stops carried by the cutting block for limiting its approach to the punches.

3. A machine of theclass described having, in combination, a plurality of hollow punches, a cutting block for forcing the material to be punched against the punches, a backing strip located between the cutting block and the material to be punched and adapted to receive the ends of the hollow punches, a driving shaft, a rigid connecting rod between saidv shaft andv cutting block, there being a certain amount of play in the bearings of said rod whereby the cutting block will approach nearer to the punches when thin material is being punched and the resistance to its approach is less than when thick material is being punched, and rigid stops for preventing said approach.

4f. A machine of the class4 described having, in combination, a series of punches, means for pressing a piece of material against said punches, a yielding stripper plate for removing the punched material from the punches, and a support for the margin of the material, said support having its effective surface approximately in the plane of the similar surface of the stripper plate and being yieldable independently of said l plate.

5. A machine of the class described having, in combination, a series of punches, a cutting block, means for causing relative movement of said punches and block, a yielding stripper plate through which said punches may be forced, said plate being adapted to support the piece of material'to be punched with its margin projecting beyond the edge of said plate, a yielding edge gage against which the edge of said projecting margin is placed, and a support for said margin yieldable independently of said edge gage and stripper plate.

6. A machine of the class described having, in combination, a series of punches, a yielding stripper plate having apertures to receive said punches, a yielding edge gage for positioning the piece of material to be punched, said gage extending above said stripper plate, a cutting block, means for causing relative movement of said block and punches whereby first the edge gage and .then the stripper plate is depressed, and a support for the margin of the piece of material adjacent to the edge gage arranged to act during the depression of said gage and to be depressed with said stripper plate.

7. A machine of the class described having, in combination, a series of punches, means for pressing a piece of material against said punches, a backing strip extending on ,the side of the material opposite the punches, a reel from which the strip is unwound intermittently to bring a new portion into operative position, and a second reel upon which the strip is rewound, said second reel being operated by the turning of the rst reel.`

8. A machine of the class described having, in' combination, a series of punches, means for pressing a piece of material against said punches, a main reel, a backing strip in the form of a roll mounted on said reel, said strip passing between said punches and said pressing means whereby during the operation of the machine the punches enter the strip, means for feeding the strip between the punching operations, a rewinding reel to which the other end of the strip is attached, said last-nained-reel being movable toward and from the main reel, and' means for resisting movement away from said main reel.

9. In a machine of the class described, a support for the punch plate holder comprising a grating having llongitudinal bars and cross bars, the longitudinal bars being plates.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of 15 two subscribing witnesses.

- JOHN H. RIGrBY.`

Witnesses: f v

WILLIAM J. MGDEVITT, ALFRED B. FOWLER. 

